Broken Mind
by The Silver titan
Summary: After a terror attack leaves Ruby without her family, Ozpin adopts her. However the mental scars run deep, and leave Ruby a shell of her former self. Will a new transfer student be able to brighten her life? Modern AU with PTSDRuby. Warning for PTSD, will accept all criticisms of my display if warranted. NOW ON HIATUS, PM FOR DETAILS
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY**

 **AN/ I'm back and after 15 total votes as well as a tie breaker, the winner was modern PTSD au! I'm going to do this right and will be doing research as needed to represent this right. Going a bit odd again and doing a Ren/Ruby ship, Red Lotus. Something you will all notice is I'm a Ruby centric shipper, and in that being said, my choice for Ren should be somewhat clear. Anyways, let's get this show on the road!**

"Ruby come on or you'll get lost. Your sister wants to get her music." Summer called trying to get a ten-year-old Ruby to stay by her side.

"Sorry mom, I saw some new mechanical sets." Ruby said.

"Remember where they are, and we can come back to it, your uncle Qrow should be at the music store waiting for us." Tai spoke.

"Now Yang, what was the name of the band again?" Summer asked.

"They're the Achieve Men! Come on mom, I've told you a thousand times already. I just hope they haven't sold out yet." Yang said hopefully.

"Why do you like them so much Yang? I can't stand them." Ruby asked.

"Ruby, you like dad's rock music, that automatically means you can't say anything about mine." Yang shot back.

"Alright Firecracker, no need to insult music." Qrow said as he walked up behind the family.

"UNCLE QROW!" Ruby shouted as she grabbed onto him.

"Hey Ruby, and happy birthday Yang, are you ready for your party tonight?" Qrow asked as Ruby let go.

"Yeah! Are you going to be there for dinner?" Yang asked as she rushed into the store.

"No sadly, Ironwood needs me at the station in a couple hours, but that doesn't mean I can't get you something, now, find your cd." Qrow followed, leaving Ruby with her parents.

"Did Qrow just highjack our present for her?" Tai asked.

"Let him have it, we know full well this isn't all she wanted." Summer sighed. Within two minutes, Yang was running back out.

"I got the last one!" Yang shouted as she ran out of the store.

"Lucky you Yang, now come on, the mall will get busier soon." Tai gestured towards the center of the mall. Patch was by no means a large city, but it's mall was a massive structure.

"Now then, where do you want to go next?" Sumer asked. As Yang began to talk, multiple screams filled the air, followed by multiple gun shots.

"It's the White Fang!" Someone yelled.

"Mom, what's going on?!" Ruby asked, as her and Yang were both picked up.

"Don't worry about it Petal, just focus on us ok?" Summer asked desperately.

"You guys get out of here, I'll catch up!" Qrow broke off, drawing his pistol.

"What is the White Fang doing here? Why would they attack Patch of all places?" Tai asked.

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here." Summer said as she turned a corner. Stopping and getting back around the corner, Summer tried to calm herself. "They have the doors blocked."

"Damnit. Girls, you need to hide. There, hide in those bushes, don't make a sound and don't come out, ok?" Tai pointed towards a small indoor garden.

"But what about you?" Ruby asked.

"We have to find a way past the bad guys, ok? We'll be just fine, alright?" Summer explained.

"Are you sure? Why can't you just hide with us?" Yang asked as she held Ruby close to her.

"Because there isn't enough room for us, now go!" Tai pushed them towards the bushes. Making sure he couldn't see either of them, Tai sighed.

"So how are we going to do this? This is practically suicide, you know, that right?" Summer asked.

"You think I don't know that? I didn't want them to see what happens. As much as I would rather it not happen, Raven can watch them if anything happens to us." Tai explained.

"You don't trust Qrow?" Summer asked.

"It's Qrow, he would've found us by now if anything didn't happen." Before Summer could say anything, two faunus wearing masks found them.

"Hands up!" One shouted. Complying, Summer and Tai put their hands above their heads. Summer watched as one of the faunus hit Tai in the gut with the stock of his rifle.

"Filthy humans, what does Adam want done with these ones?" The other faunus asked.

"The other are rounding up the ones that survived in the food court over there. Mass execution." The first Faunus explained. At this Summer began to struggle.

"You won't get away with this!" She screamed as the second one secured her arms. With her arms now held behind her, the first Faunus hit her in the stomach as well, causing her to crumple to her knees.

"Come on, the rest will be here soon." As the two faunus pushed the couple towards the food court, Yang and Ruby watched on in horror. Soon after, a group of people were brought in, flanked by more armed faunus. The two children watched as each person was forced to their knees. However, they noticed that each person that was forced down was a human, while the masked people were faunus.

"Brothers and sisters of the White Fang, today we have fought for the glory of faunus! Sienna Khan was murdered by these lowly creatures, and now, we will show faunus superiority over the scum of this planet! Take aim, and fire!" A bull faunus shouted. As he spoke, the White Fang raised their rifles and began firing. Yang and Ruby couldn't pull their eyes away.

"Mom, dad, no." Yang spoke before silently sobbing. Ruby couldn't bring herself to move or make a noise. Neither of them noticed that the gunfire had stopped, or that the White Fang had begun to disperse with their slaughter now complete. Before she could clamp down on her emotions, Yang let out an audible sob.

"What was that?" Was all they heard as a faunus with wolf ears turned towards them.

"Go check it out, leave no witnesses." Was all the wolf faunus needed before he began walking to their hiding spot. With her heartbeat rising, Yang remembered her yellow shirt. With fear gripping her, Yang began to try to shuffle away, resulting in the faunus noticing her sooner. Before either could react, he sprayed his rifle into the bush, with two of his shots hitting Yang in the leg.

"Found ya, you little shit." The faunus growled as he pulled Yang out of the bush by her shirt. Mustering what strength and courage she had left, she swung her fist at his face, landing a solid hit, but doing nothing more than angering her.

"You monster!" Yang screamed.

"Wrong move." Was all Yang heard before a knife was jammed into her throat. Reaching for her throat, Yang felt the knife rip through her flesh before she was dropped to the floor, frantically trying to stop the bleeding. "Vermin like you deserve no mercy."

With the faunus leaving, Yang was free to make any amount of noise she desired. Ruby was petrified, and only slightly thankful Yang wasn't looking in her direction. As Yang stopped moving, Shouting erupted.

"It's SWAT, open fire!" Ruby covered her ears as gunfire erupted once more. Lasting only a few minutes, Ruby opened her eyes and looked out at the food court. Seeing people dressed in a different uniform, Ruby shifted to get a better look. Noticing the bright white SWAT on their backs Ruby began standing up.

"Hey sergeant, I got survivor over here!" Ruby immediately froze. "Hey hey, you're safe now. Are you hurt?"

Ruby turned towards the officer and shook her head.

"Ok, I need you to come with me, ok? We're just going to go outside."

 **AN/ And that's the first chapter! I know some things would never have actually happened here, but screw it, I needed to make this situation cause reasons. Next chapter is a time skip and will set up the world for the rest of the story. Anyways, until next time, have a great day!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer I do not own RWBY**

 **AN/ I'm back once again, classes start very soon, though I Don't know how this will affect my schedule, but we shall see, I doubt it will do much. So, I'm doing some more world building this chapter, setting up life for Ruby and all that. Anyways, on to the chapter!**

"Ruby, are you ready to go?" Ruby heard Ozpin call from downstairs. Having been adopted by him and his wife Glynda had done much to improve her life. She was taken care of, brought to a psychologist and her general quality of life improved.

"Yeah, just one moment!" Ruby called back as she put her newest contraption away, bracing certain parts to keep it from falling apart. It had been five years since the incident, as she dubbed it. Since Ozpin had adopted her she had been a slow working case, making minimal progress. She truly hated what the attack had done to her.

"Ruby, you don't want doctor Oobleck to be kept waiting. You know how he gets." Glynda chastised as she walked past the open door. With everything set, Ruby walked out of her room, sure to shut the door behind her. Walking downstairs, Ruby was greeted by Zwei, a gift from Ozpin two years ago.

"Hey boy, I gotta go out today, you be good." Ruby said as Zwei rolled over.

"Are you ready Ruby? Oscar will be stopping by later." Ozpin said as he walked out of his office.

"Yes, I'm ready, will miss Khan be there? I want to apologize to her." Ruby asked.

"I believe she will be, if you feel that you are ready. You do know she understands what happened, right?" Ozpin asked as he led Ruby out to the car.

"I know, but I feel bad, and it's been months since then, if I don't try to now, I don't think I ever will." Ozpin allowed himself to smile slightly at this.

"And I understand the sentiment, but if you try to rush this, it may just backfire, are you sure?" Ozpin asked. He knew any progress was good progress, however he didn't want Ruby to be hurt further.

"I think I am. Now come on, we don't want to keep Oobleck waiting, now do we?" Ruby joked. To hear Ruby crack any kind of a joke had become rare since Ozpin and Glynda took her in.

"So Ruby, we're getting some new students this week, do you think you could show them around during homeroom?" Ozpin asked as he drove calmly through downtown Vale.

"Sure, how many are there?" Ruby asked as they drove past Beacon Academy.

"Only three, and one of them has a majority of his classes with you." Ozpin explained as he pulled into the parking lot of the Beacon clinic. Unlike most private schools and high schools, Beacon prided itself on its curriculum that helped prepare its students for college of all levels, while also remaining an open admissions school. Among that were classes taught by historians, doctors and any other field that could be explored in college.

"That won't be a problem, tomorrow, can you take me up to the shop? I need to work on some things." Ruby asked as the car stopped, and the doors unlocked.

"Of course, and when do plan on telling us what it is?" Ozpin jokingly asked as he locked the doors.

"You know when, I need to finish it first." Ruby responded as she opened the doors to the offices.

"Ah, Ruby, there you are, Oobleck was about to start pacing the lobby, without you here." Fox joked as he looked up from the desk.

"Sorry, but I got very into my current project, is he ready for us?" Ruby asked as Fox nodded.

"Go on ahead Ruby, I'll be in there in just a moment. Fox is Sienna in today?"

"Doctor Oobleck, sorry I'm late." Ruby said as she walked into Oobleck's office.

"Miss Rose, I was wondering when you would be here. We are precisely, three minutes and twenty-two seconds behind schedule! Now please, take a seat and let us begin. Now I've heard about an incident in school, care to explain?" Oobleck asked.

"Yeah, I was in a hurry to get to my next class, and I tripped over someone. They were a rabbit faunus, and I just kinda, freaked out. But I did make a new friend though. Back on track though, she tried to help me up, but I just swatted her away. I was scared what would have happened if she tried to push it further, but before that could happen, Weiss Schnee came and picked me up and pulled me away towards class." Ruby explained.

"Well compared to past incidents this was rather tame at least. That being said you ran into Velvet Scarlatina, she told me about what happened, and I explained in short what had happened to you. But tell me about this new friend, would I be correct in assuming that it is Weiss Schnee?" Oobleck asked.

"Yeah, after she pulled me away, she made sure I was alright and got me to class. At lunch she found me and had me talk about what happened. After that she said she was going to make sure I was always ok." Ruby said as she remembered the incident.

"Well, I'm sure Ozpin must have been happy to see you make a new friend. So, tell me, how do you feel you are progressing? Do you feel that you are doing better? I know it has been a long process for you, but you are making progress, slowly, but still progress." Oobleck asked.

"I feel that, in a controlled situation, I think I could handle it." Ruby said confidently.

"That is wonderful miss Rose, I will be sure to prepare for your next appointment next month." Oobleck said as he wrote down notes.

"Actually, I want to try and do so today." Ruby said, her voice shaking ever so slightly.

"Are you sure? While exposure therapy can be a wonderful thing, it cannot be rushed. If for whatever reason you want to try something else, you still have that choice." Oobleck cautioned. At the sound of knocking at the door, both turned to face the door.

"Pardon me for interrupting your session, Ruby, it took me a while to find someone." Ozpin apologized as he held the door open.

"It's no problem at all, but, who did you need to look for?" Oobleck asked. To answer his question, someone else spoke up from the hallway.

"I hope you don't mind me intruding doctor, but I couldn't deny the call for help. Hello Ruby, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

 **AN/ And done! So, to clear up the first AN, class has started a couple weeks ago, so let that sink in on how long it took to actually write this. So next chapter should bring this all into a more realistic and far more believable, also, how do you guys think Ruby's first real interaction with Sienna will go? And trust me, I do have a plan as well as explanations for certain characters, as well as for Beacon and how that all works. Anyways, until next time, have a great day!**


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